New information added on February
12, 2016

He has called
together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable,
and distant from the depository of their public records, for
the sole purpose
of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has erected
a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers,
to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

- The Declaration
of Independence of the United States of America, July 4th,
1776

The APA headquarters in Ray brook, N.Y. Notice the bland
landscaping featuring an open lawn and a few trees, with the
absence of a wilderness buffer zone that the agency requires
of private houses to make them invisible from the highway.

The Adirondack Park in the Northeastern U. S.
from The Adirondack Park in the Twenty-first Century, Commission
on the Adirondacks in the Twenty-first Century (1990). Click
map for larger version and additional information.

PRFAs New Welcome Postcard:
Satirical Postcard Carries a Message about the
Adirondack Park
January 2010Ordering Information

Bulletin: Split Ruling on Adirondack Park Agencys
New Regulations - By Carol W.
LaGrasse, PRFA, November 27, 2009State Supreme Court Judge Robert Muller ruled on November
25 that the APAs new regulations requiring a variance
for most expansions of lakeshore houses are valid, but held that
the new rules restricting non-jurisdictional hunting and fishing
cabins to primitive conditions and the new rules eliminating
automatic separate lots when a waterway or highway divide a parcel
are invalid.

A Slew of Property Rights Bills Submitted to
State Legislature - By Carol
W. LaGrasse (PRFA, June 2006)Bi-partisan bills in the New York State Legislature tackle
eminent domain reform, local permit applicant uncertainty, and
uniformity of Adirondack regulations with statewide rules, as
well as economic impact of Adirondack Park Agency and DEC planning.

Sacandaga Lake property owner Faults Adirondack
Life Article  Letter to
the Editor by Guy Poulin, March 2005Access permit holders maintain the shoreline, pay income to
the Hudson River - Black River Regulating District, and pay premium
local property taxes. The April Adirondack Life article
attacking the permit holders had many important errors.

Bulletin - Hearings for Comprehensive Adirondack
Snowmobile Plan - Property Rights
Foundation of America. January 2004Environmentalists long to close down snowmobiling. Sportsmen
and women, and all who believe in preserving the rural economy
should stand together. Access for snowmobilers helps to keep
the Forest Preserve open to all. Full article contains hearing
schedule across New York State beginning February 9 in Guilderland,
ending March 11 in Utica.

Letter
from Robert K. Davies, Director, DEC
Division of Lands and Forests, to Adirondack Explorer,
January 13, 2004.
[S]nowmobiles are an allowable use in non-wilderness
areas of the Adirondack Forest Preserve [T]he dangerous
and inflammatory rhetoric used by Mr. Van Valkenburgh in his
article is
counterproductiveSuch cavalier mention of booby-trapping
snowmobile trails should be strongly renounced by everyone who
wishes for a civil public process.

Additional Resources

Oppose DEC ATV Plan! - by Don Sage, Adirondack Council
Life Member, April 28, 2005This DEC plan to block ATVs from the Adirondacks
is based on lies. ATV riding has been formally allowed for decades.
Hikers are the most destructive users in the forest preserve.
Since 1986, over $6 million has been taken from ATV fees, but
there is nowhere to ride on state-owned land. DEC illegally closed
300 town roads in the forest preserve. These and 1,000 miles
of trails should be reopened with an interconnecting trail system
for all types of recreation.

This large official map depicts the
categories of land use established by the Governor-appointed
zoning agency, the Adirondack Park Agency (APA), for all private
and State-owned land within the of the Adirondack Park.

For Information on the APA:
Subscribe to the Adirondack Park Agency Reporter
An independent monthly record of the deliberations of the Adirondack
Park Agencyaddress

Diamond Sportsmens Club, Inc(New sportsmens club near South Colton
in St. Lawrence County seeks members.)address & website

French-Canadian Residents Ousted from Their Land in
Indian Lake - Historians report,
posted March 2005, originally attached to New York States
1987 management plan for Siamese Ponds area.The Report of the Town and County Historian of
the Area Known as Little Canadain the
Town of Indian Lake by Ted Aber, Historian, January
25, 1982, tells how the French-Canadian residents were, without
exception, ousted from their land when it was sold
to New York State. In 1987, the APA Siamese Pond Wilderness
designation threatened access to the cemetery and abandoned settlement
on historic John Pond Road. The State closed the old road anyway.

Websites

Department of Environmental Conservation, State of
New York(See Whats new for information
about each Unit Management Plan, including documents available
and hearing dates.)www.dec.state.ny.us

In-Depth Information

Commentary
on DEC's Proposed Policy for Primitive Tent Sites -
By Susan Allen, January 29, 2016The proposed guidance for roadside campsites should be eliminated.
Existing camping spots along roads represent a classic tradition
in the Adirondacks, that of casual outdoor recreation created
in the beginning by the then-new automobile and the rise of the
weekend getaway for working people. This tradition must not be
lost.

Abolish the
APA - By Carol W. LaGrasse, Letter to the Editor, Post-Star,
Glens Falls, N.Y. May 13, 2012 In support of Don Sages call to abolish the APA,
this letter draws a brief comparison between the practices and
attitude demonstrated in the New York State Conservation Commissions
1924 report to the Legislature welcoming vacationing families
to camp in the forest preserve and the current APA/DEC eradication
of family access and enjoyment of the forest preserve.

Common Ground
in the Adirondacks - Speech by Carol W. LaGrasse, President,
Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc., Hosted by the League
of Blue Line Voters, Town Hall, Chestertown, N.Y. August 24,
2011Drawing on first hand observations, experience, and research
beginning in 1973, Carol LaGrasse refutes the popular Adirondack
strategy of seeking common ground with environmental groups,
and instead urges that the Adirondack community leadership base
their strategy of working in a united front on their inherent
common ground with organizations ranging from local government
officials to sportsmen to medical institutions, and other groups
whose corporate purposes are consistent with the wellbeing of
the local people and their communities.

APA
Deals Blow to Elderly Couples Home Improvements
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, June 2011The Appellate Court has upheld the Adirondack Park Agencys
order to Marilyn and Milton Wechsler to remove the gabion wall
they built beyond the shoreline in front of their house on Loon
Lake in Franklin County and other landscape structurestwo
wooden stairways, a stone patio, stone wall and driveway, which
the APA deemed to be one continuous structure although they are
not connected.

Statement
in Opposition to APA/DEC Plans for Moose River Plains - E-mail
to APA/DEC by Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, September 16, 2010Sportsmen beware: The extreme plans for this most popular,
yet remote area of the Adirondacks will convert 15,062 acres
of land deeded as the Moose River Plains Recreation Area to APA/DEC
Wilderness category, forever cutting off roads and all access
except for use by the most athletic individuals. So-called roadside
camping, which is simply camping where the motor
vehicle can be driven on a narrow dirt road to a parking spot
close to the primitive encampment, will be restricted to a thin
string one tenth of a mile wide on either side of Cedar River
Road. In addition, Otter Brook Road and Indian Lake Road will
be closed. The present number of camps of 170 will be reduced
to 83. (Many camps have already been stealthily taken away, reducing
the number from over 200.) Forty-nine miles of snowmobile trail
will be closed and only 14 miles created.

Judge
Says No To Multiple APA Illegalities -
By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, June 30, 2010Citing multiple illegal and unconstitutional impositions,
on June 2, 2010 Essex County Supreme Court Judge Richard Meyer
reversed the majority of the Adirondack Park Agencys
enforcement decision against Joseph and Patricia Zelanis, who
own a shorefront home on Lake George in the town of Putnam in
Washington County. The APA has routinely imposed the illegal
impositions on property owners.

A
State Snowmobile Plan & the Local Economy: Worth Commenting
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, Reprinted from the New York Property
Rights Clearinghouse, Vol. 14 No. 2 (PRFA, Early Summer 2010)A new snowmobile plan for the area in the vicinity of Lake
Pleasant in Hamilton County, known by DEC and APA as the Jessup
River Wild Forest, is touted as facilitating a connector
between communities that stops the use of a popular established
route that is too deep in the forest for the environmentalists
taste. However, the connector dead
ends at the Piseco Community Hall, not exactly a snowmobile destination,
while prohibiting the use of Oxbow Lake to reach the Oxbow Inn
and Oxbow Hotel and eliminating short spurs that make it possible
for local residents to get to the trail.

APA
Statute of Limitations Passes Senate - By Carol W.
LaGrasse, PRFA, June 30, 2010On June 25, 2010 the State Senate passed legislation sponsored
by Sen. Elizabeth OC. Little that would impose a
ten-year statute of limitations on enforcement of violations
of the Adirondack park Agency law. The ten-year limit would be
measured from the date of the alleged violation or from the date
on which a public servant, exercising reasonable diligence, should
have discovered the violation.

A
Letter to Residents and Legislators of the Adirondack Park
- By James N. ORourke, Sr., Lake Pleasant, N.Y. 12108Referring to the Town of Lake Pleasant and the Village of
Speculator in Hamilton County,World War II veteran and former
town supervisor James N. ORourke, Sr., describes
the decline in this thriving community after the Adirondack Park
Agency came into existence in 1973.

Statement
Opposed to the Rerouting Snowmobile Trails in Jessup River Wild
Forest - By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, June 16, 2010The proposed plan to reroute snowmobile trails in the Jessup
River Wild Forest does not satisfy the Adirondack Park Agency
laws requirement for balance. The elimination of
trails, lake crossings, and spurs will threaten one of the few
surviving businesses in Lake Pleasant, the Ox-Bow Inn on Route
8.

APA Re-votes: Waters
& Underlying Land of Lows Lake Are Not Classified
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, November 14, 2009According to the APAs vote in September, the
waters and underlying land of Lows Lake on the border of Hamilton
and St. Lawrence Counties would be classified as wilderness
and primitive because the underlying
land is state-owned and most of the surrounding land was state-owned.
This would have been the first such determination where all of
the surrounding land was not state-owned. However, one of the
votes was invalid and the APA reconsidered the decision at its
November meeting. At this meeting, every commissioner was present
and all of the State agency designees sided with the opponents
of the classification. In addition, one of the governor-appointed
commissioners who had favored the classification reversed his
position. The new vote was 7 to 4 in favor of approving the land
use classification for the area around Lows lake, but not the
lake itself.

The
Meaning of the Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve
- By Peter J. LaGrasse, Chairman, Stony Creek Board of Assessors,
Thirteenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights
(PRFA, Lake George, N.Y., October 17, 2009)The meaning of the Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve
is made clear by a study of the technical literature of proponents
and a map study of the state acquisition of land in the Adirondacks
since the designation in 1989. The core area, reserved to be
without human influence, is defined as all of the state-owned
land. The areas between the state-owned land in 1989 are rapidly
being filled in with fee simple state acquisitions and state
purchases of conservation easements. The Biosphere Reserve designation,
which is under UNESCO auspices, is at the heart of the goal to
depopulate the region.

Victory:
Old Mountain Road Opened to Motor Vehicles - By James
McCulley, President, Lake Placid Snowmobile Club, Lake Placid,
N.Y., Thirteenth Annual National Conference on Private Property
Rights (PRFA, Lake George, N.Y., October 17, 2009)Jim McCulleys first-hand account of his successful
battle to restore motorized use to Old Mountain Road between
Keene and Lake Placid brings the entire history to life. This
is the first time DEC has been forced in court, both in the Essex
County Supreme Court and in the DEC Administrative Court, to
open up a town road that the agency tried to close.

Jim McCulley, President, Lake Placid
Snowmobile Club, Lake Placid, N.Y.
The freedom spirit and excitement of Jim McCulleys successful
battle to open up the Old Mountain Road is inspiring a movement
to open roads elsewhere in the Forest Preserve.

Righting
the APA/DEC Access Policy - By Ted Galusha, President,
Adirondackers for Access, Warrensburg, N.Y., Thirteenth Annual
National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Lake George,
N.Y., October 17, 2009)In 1998, Ted Galusha and other disabled individuals filed
suit in federal court and immediately won an injunction opening
the roads, trails and areas that the DEC officers drove on to
access the Adirondack Forest Preserve and illegally arrested
them on for using motorized vehicles. After three years of fighting
in court, they had a consent decree, signed by the judge as a
court order on July 5, 2001. This speech is a heart-rending litany
of the myriad ways that the state has chosen not to comply with
much of the consent decree and the Americans with Disabilities
Act.

Ted Galusha, President, Adirondackers
for Access, Warrensburg, N.Y.Ted Galusha is a champion of the disabled, as well as all
people who object to the DECs barricading and destroying
roads and campsites so that the people, whether disabled or not,
are denied access to much of the Adirondack Forest Preserve that
they used to enjoy.

The
Adirondack Park Agency Idea - By Carol W. LaGrasse,
President, Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc., Thirteenth
Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA,
Lake George, N.Y., October 17, 2009)The idea of the Forest Preserve changed from one of protection
of the forest in the late nineteenth century to assure a benefit
to the state as a whole (primarily the protection of the flow
of water to assure commercial navigation on the Erie Canal and
the Hudson River) while extending fair policy to the local people,
to the current state policy of radical preservation, massive
state land acquisition, and a systematic program to cause the
depopulation of the local people in a vast region many times
the size of the original Forest Preserve.

APA
Classifies First Water Body - Lows Lake Mainly Wilderness
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, September 20, 2009The Adirondack Park Agency asserted a new power in September
by classifying a water body for the first time, in this case
designating Lows Lake in the town of Long Lake as mainly wilderness.
In addition to designating the waters and bed of the lake as
largely wilderness and also primitive,
the agency decided that the shores of lakes do not have to be
entirely owned by the State of New York for the lake itself to
be classified and so managed, as long as the bed of the lake
is owned by the State.

Statement
in Opposition to the Reclassification of Lows Lake and Vicinity
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, August 25, 2009The proposed classification of Lows Lake itself (the actual
waters of the lake) as wilderness is a new power grab by the
APA, which has never before classified the waters of a lake.
Acting Executive Director James Connolly called it a progression
in the way it deals with water bodies. This six-page
statement shows how the illegalities and injustices in this group
of classifications exemplify the bias against seaplanes and the
like and favoritism toward canoers, kayakers, and hikers, who
are the political clientele of the wealthy who control the APA.
Environmental considerations are not a factor.

The Fraud
and Double Standard - By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, August
15, 2009 The APA was just defeated as it tried to exert illegal jurisdiction
over farm worker housing. The wealthy forces from New York City
use an environmental façade to victimize local people.
A double standard allowed APA Chairman Curt Stiles to unlock
a gate to drive through designated wilderness
to camp at Lake Lila, but ordinary people have to hike to see
the lake.

Statement
in Opposition to the Lows Lake Classifications and Reclassifications
- By Susan Allen, August 28, 2009This succinct one-page statement covers a range of reasons
why the Lows Lake Classifications and Reclassifications should
not be approved. For instance: Dams, roads and private
inholdings contradict the description of the area as wilderness.
Bias is indicated by the DECs plan to increase the
number of campsites for canoers, whereas campsites for hunters
and families in the forest preserve are being greatly reduced.

DEC Administrative
Judge Rules in Favor of McCulleys Use of Old Mountain Road
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, May 31, 2009The DECs Chief DEC Administrative Law Judge James
T. McClymonds concluded that the Department of Environmental
Conservation staff failed to overcome the presumption that Old
Mountain Road between the towns of North Elba and Keene in Essex
County continues to exist as a public highway, whether as a town
road or other legal public right-of way. DEC Commissioner Alexander
B. Grannis then dismissed the DEC enforcement proceeding that
had been brought against James W. McCulley because he drove his
truck into the Adirondack Forest Preserve on the road.

Is
There an Adirondack Awakening?
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, April, 2009 (Reprinted from the New York Property Rights Clearinghouse, Vol. 13, No. 1)The extreme policies of the Adirondack Park Agency, Department
of Environmental Conservation, and Governor David Paterson are
arousing opposition that has been brooding for years. Local citizens
and officials are expressing mounting anger about the states
regulatory impositions; prosecutions of landowners; obstruction
of economic development; unbridled state land acquisition; impeding
and closing of travel, recreational access and campgrounds; and
the attempted imposition of unbearable real estate taxes.

Warning:
Strict New APA Hunting and Fishing Cabin Regulations
- Flyer (Publ. Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc., February
8, 2009)The jurisdictional exception for 500 sq. ft. or less hunting
and fishing cabins under Resource Management that was negotiated
into the APA law in 1973 is being watered down by imposing regulations
that are tighter than the law, so that it will be harder to build
a non-jurisdictional hunting and fishing cabin in the future.

State
Acquisitions for Adirondack Forest Preserve Have Monumental Hunting
Impact - Two-page flyer published by Property Rights
Foundation of America, Inc., February 8, 2009The Department of Environmental Conservation misleads the
public about the purpose of land acquisitions for the Forest
Preserve. State ownership does not to increase access, as claimed.
This flyer summarizes ten years of DECs actions
to impede and close hunting access; eliminate hunting camps;
lock out snowmobilers, ATVs, and motorized vehicles;
and close roads and state campsites. A roster of major land acquisitions
is also included.Requires Adobe
Acrobat Reader

John Maye Personal Statement
Against Tax-exempt Bonds for The Nature Conservancy - Transcript
from public hearing held by the Colorado Educational and Cultural
Facilities Authority at City Hall, Glens Falls, N.Y., December
2, 2008 After John Maye and his wife moved into their camp, The Nature
Conservancy approached the couple several times to sell their
property, but they werent interested. The
Nature Conservancy was aware of the conjured up violations by
APA and DEC to force the sale of my property March 28, 2008
my total maximum penalty was $2,962,000  The
enforcement penalty was dropped after four years, but the toll
on his health remains great.

Letter in Opposition to Tax-exempt Bonds for
The Nature Conservancy to Acquire Land in the Adirondacks
- By Howard Aubin, Councilman, Town of Black Brook, N.Y., E-mail
to Frederic H. Marienthal, Attorney for Colorado Educational
and Cultural Facilities Authority, November 25, 2008 Requirements of IRS Code Sec. 147 for local government approval
have not been met. In addition, The Nature Conservancy contacted
an elderly couple this summer to buy their property and when
the couple refused to sell, the Adirondack Park Agency threatened
the couple with a $2.962 million fine. Giving such
a bond to the Nature Conservancy only helps them to terrorize
more people within the Adirondacks.

APA
Announces GIS-Based Enforcement - By Carol W. LaGrasse,
PRFA, February 2, 2008It is over thirteen years since PRFA published its APA
Shell Game revealing that the APA was developing
an unsurpassed GIS capacity to enforce its environmental zoning
regulations. This January the APA announced that it was going
to tap into a statewide real estate database, coupled with GIS,
to find old violations of the APA law. The State Legislature
should pass a statute of limitations on violations of the APA
Act.

A
Sound, Consistent Policy - Worth Commenting
By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, January 2008Since 1886, the State has paid real estate taxes on its Adirondack
Forest Preserve, now amounting to three million acres contained
within the six million-acre Blue Line
of government and private land in northern New York, because
the State-owned lands provide a statewide benefit of, first,
watershed protection, and, additionally, more recently, environmental
preservation envisioned by statewide residents. The economic
sacrifice of the 100-plus towns and villages in the Adirondacks
has been recognized for over a century, as well. Legal action
to end these tax payments, in Dillenburg vs. State of New
York, is not justified.

Adirondack
Stretch of North Country National Scenic Trail Planned
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, January 2008Property Rights concerns for the 140 mile stretch of the Adirondack
segment of the 4,600-mile North Country National Scenic Trail
include acquisition techniques, exact location, liability, ultimate
ownership, and impacts on hunting and trapping. The plan for
the trail has been moved out of the High Peaks region to a less
scenic area to the south after over two decades of opposition
by the Adirondack Mountain Club.

The
Craze of Environmental Irrationality - By John Berlau,
Director, Center for Entrepreneurship, Competitive Enterprise
Institute, Washington, D.C.; Eleventh Annual National Conference
on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 13, 2007)Environmentalism is dominated by disdain for human life, grounded
in Rachel Carsons vilification of DDT and thus arguably
causing more deaths from malaria and other insect-borne diseases
than from any other cause during the twentieth century. A recent
local example of this disdain for human life was the death of
Alfred Langner from exposure while trapped in his car for 2 days
after an auto accident, unable to reach help because his cell
phone had no reception on the Interstate Northway because environmentalists
banned cell towers.

Our Stolen Legacy:
The Betrayal of the Declaration of Independence for the Cause
of Landscape Preservation - By Carol W. LaGrasse, President,
PRFA, July 5, 2007Government from distant places, fatiguing the people into
compliance; a multitude of new offices and swarms of officers
to harass the peopleA government far from the vision
of justice based on all men being created equal, endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. Landscape preservation from the
regional, state, federal and international level takes precedence,
eradicating freedom.

Smart
Growth to the Rescue - By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA,
July 27, 2007)The Spitzer Administration announced on July 17 that it was
setting aside $1 million for smart growth
planning to revitalize the economy of the Adirondack region.
But the Adirondack region already suffers from the groundbreaking
1973 smart growth-style Adirondack Park Agency Act. The economic
difficulty of the of the 12-county Adirondack region is caused
by the State Adirondack Park Agencys radical land
use controls and the States voracious appetite for
land, driving up the price of real estate beyond local means
and leaving little land for any practical use.

DECs
Insidious Disregard for the PeopleComments on DEC Draft
Wilcox Lake Wild Forest UMP- By Carol W. LaGrasse,
President, Property Rights Foundation of America, March 2, 2007DECs insidious disregard for the people is exemplified
by its treatment of Stony Creek and environs. The proposed Draft
Unit Management Plan for Wilcox Lake Wild Forest should be discarded.
The plan should be re-drawn under new assumptions, with the local
culture, economy, history, and the community included as salient
factors in a plan that respects the local people.

Disabled Apartheid-DECs
Betrayal and Discrimination - By Carol W. LaGrasse,
Hearing Statement on DEC Lake George Wild Forest UMP, Queensbury
Town Hall, December 13, 2006.DEC has betrayed the visionary effort of the disabled to open
up access to the Forest Preserve to people with disabilities
and people who are not athletic, by virtually closing down the
popular family recreation area on the Hudson River in Warrensburg,
which was established on land acquired from Niagara Mohawk, while
keeping open the most limited facilities exclusively for the
disabled.

New
York Property Rights Directions-Speech by Carol W.
LaGrasse, Cato Institute Conference-Property Rights on
the March: Where from Here, December 1, 2006, Washington,
D.C.An overview of where property rights stand in New York, what
the directions are, and where the work for our cause has been
effective: focusing on the battle to keep land in private hands,
holding off extreme land-use regulation, the issue of conservation
easements, regional preservationist land-use battles, ubiquitous
zoning conflicts; and eminent domain.

Land Acquired
- But Wait, Access Closed - By Carol W. LaGrasse (Reprinted
from the New York Property Rights Clearinghouse, PRFA,
Summer 2006)New York States announcements when acquiring
vast tracts of private land for the Forest Preserve promise more
access for the public, but over decades, more recently over a
very short time, the campsites and access roads are being closed
and the land is being cut off from hunters and other recreational
users that do not fit the mold approved by extreme environmentalists.

Four
More APA Porn Violators Revealed, New Ethics Accusation Made
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, Reprinted from the New York Property
Rights Clearinghouse, PRFA, Spring 2006.Edward J. Hood, top planner and UNESCO Champlain-Adirondack
Biosphere Reserve figure, was punished for computer porn along
with the APA spokesman Keith McKeever. The State Ethics Commission
accused APA staffer Sunita Halasz of violating the Public Officers
Law by attempting to funnel work to her spouse and accused her
supervisor Dan Spada of holding meetings for this purpose.

Our Hike
on the Threatened Road to Whitehouse-A Photo Story, April 11,
2006 - by Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, June 2006)In order to enlarge the Silver Lake Wilderness, the State
Department of Environmental Conservation proposes to deliberately
destroy the West River Road, a town highway leading to the historic
site of Whitehouse on the West Branch of the Sacandaga River
in Wells, N.Y. Two fine steel suspension footbridges will be
deliberately allowed to deteriorate, locally cherished old stone
chimneys at the ghost town will be lost, and large, active campsites
enjoyed since at least 1962, when the State acquired the land,
will be deliberately destroyed. Access to a nineteenth century
cemetery will be cut off.

The
Cemetery at Whitehouse - Photo Story by Carol W. LaGrasse
(PRFA, June 2006)The DECs radical eradication of highways closes
down access to cherished cemeteries, so that descendants and
local people who would like to visit, pay their respects, and
maintain the graveyards are stymied.

Porn
Disclosure Subjects APA to Continuing Ridicule - By
Carol W. LaGrasse, Reprinted from the New York Property Rights
Clearinghouse, Vol. 10, No. 1 (PRFA, Winter 2006)After the story exploded across upstate New York and the wire
services that Adirondack Park Agency Director Daniel Fitts was
using the State computer for porn, he was forced to resign. The
region reacted with Adirondack Porn Agency
T-shirts, a house-sized NO APA sign,
and other ridicule. The replacement director, Richard Lefebvre,
was accused of sending pornographic e-mail to women at his previous
post as chairman of the Hudson River Black River Regulating District.

Fear
and Trembling- By Carol W. LaGrasse (Worth Commenting,
Reprinted from the New York Property Rights Clearinghouse,
Vol. 10, No. 1, PRFA, Winter 2006)Most property owners faced with the threatening experience
of dealing with DEC wetlands bureaucrats and APA officials are
so terrified that that they will not ask their elected representatives
for assistance. Anyway, representatives can not be counted on
to help property owners facing unjust environmental permit conditions
and enforcement, but, instead, are good at getting grants for
communities.

The
Campaign to Save Hurricane Mountain Fire Tower - By
Gretna Longware, Elizabethtown, N.Y.; Speech to the Ninth
Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany,
N.Y. October 22, 2005)
The 80-year-old Hurricane Mountain Fire Tower is the symbol around
which local Adirondack people are rallying to preserve their
cultural heritage. Mrs. Longware is leading a campaign to stop
a State plan to dismantle the tower.Gretna Longware 1932- 2010 Gretna Longware, who was beloved and admired throughout
the North Country, died on April 22, 2010. She successfully focused
efforts to save historic fire towers by leading a campaign to
save Hurricane Mountain Fire Tower near Elizabethtown where she
lived.We won, she said in a message that
she left Carol LaGrasse after an APA meeting a few days before
her death. I couldnt make it. We showed
them that people still have rights in northern New York.
The fire tower survives her and is still the subject of deliberations
by the DEC and APA about preserving it as a historic site.
She was born Gretna May Lewis in Wadhams on June 1, 1932. Her
rich life was marked by memorable contributions to the community,
including co-authorship of Elizabethtown Bicentennial Book and
campaigning to save the historic Baptist church steeple. She
was recognized for her many years as a Morse code operator, with
her ham radio call number WA2WHE. She is survived by her husband
of 60 years, Melvin C. Longware, whose uncle and great uncle
served as forest rangers at the tower lookout; four daughters
and their families; and one remaining sister.

Adirondack
Park Agency Officials Used State Computers for Porn
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, (PRFA, August 6, 2005)APA Executive Director Daniel Fitts was indefinitely suspended
without pay after the Office of the State Inspector General examined
seized computers and discovered that he and four other officials
at the agency were using the state computers to share obscene
photos of nude and partially nude women.Photo
Gallery

NO APA Sign Adorns House
on State Route 9 - Photo Gallery and brief article,
by Peter and Carol LaGrasse, and Ted Galusha, August 2005.Ted Galusha, the president of Adirondackers for Access, and
a Warrensburg homeowner, gathered a group of people who are disgusted
with the Adirondack Park Agency to raise a big NO APA sign on
his house.

A
Hike to Little Canada on Johns Pond Road - By
Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, May 1, 2005Our walk to a small graveyard along an old Indian Lake town
road barricaded by New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC) to enlarge the Adirondack Forest Preserve
wilderness shocked us with the realization that DEC is eradicating
roads, trails, and history.Photo Gallery

Entering
the Lake Champlain Watershed - By Susan Allen (PRFA,
May 2005)During late spring 2004, large highway signs suddenly appeared
that declared, Entering Lake Champlain Watershed
and EnteringHudson River Watershed.
The federally and state funded Lake Champlain Basin Program,
which already has precipitated the regulatory scenic byway and
many other programs, had spawned the Champlain Watershed Improvement
Coalition of New York, which had the DOT place the signs. All
of the signs disappeared late in the summer!

Entering
the Lake Champlain Watershed - By Susan Allen (PRFA,
May 2005)During late spring 2004, large highway signs suddenly appeared
that declared, Entering Lake Champlain Watershed
and EnteringHudson River Watershed.
The federally and state funded Lake Champlain Basin Program,
which already has precipitated the regulatory scenic byway and
many other programs, had spawned the Champlain Watershed Improvement
Coalition of New York, which had the DOT place the signs. All
of the signs disappeared late in the summer!

Group
Campaigns to Save Hurricane Mountain Fire Tower - By
Carol W. LaGrasse PRFA, April 21, 2005Loyalty to the 80-year old local landmark in Essex County
is fueling a battle led by Elizabethtown resident Gretna Longware
against the DECs proposed reclassification of the
area to wilderness, apparently at the
behest of influential environmentalists.

Adirondack
Park Agency Proposes Dangerous Bill
- By Carol W. LaGrasse (Property Rights Foundation of America,
March 9, 2005)The APA is quietly promoting its program bill, with stringent
new restrictions that would be unconstitutional Fifth Amendment
takings of the property rights of shorefront
owners. The bill would have a negative impact on the ability
of local people to afford homes and hurt the local tax base and
economy.

Another
Snitch System Institutionalized - By Carol W. LaGrasse
(Property Rights Foundation of America January 23, 2005)With the successful settlement of a lawsuit by an environmental
group, the Residents Committee to Protect the Adirondacks, citizen
informants can not efficiently report violations on the six-million
acre Adirondack Forest Preserve. New York States
trend toward environmental snitch systems is raising hackles
here and there.

Adirondack
Agency Puts Final Stranglehold on 18,896 Acres
- By Carol W. LaGrasse (Property Rights Foundation of America,
January 2005)The Adirondack Park Agencys September 2004 permit
for a final division of the Long Pond property in St. Lawrence
County, N.Y., tightened the noose on the already desiccated future
of a tract that was once the site, in 1972, of the Horizon
development proposal, which environmentalists had then exploited
to rush the APA act into law.

The
Tourism Trap - By Carol W. LaGrasse, reprinted from
the New York Property Rights Clearinghouse, Vol. 8, No.
3 (Summer 2004)Tourism is touted as the economic drive for rural areas such
as the North Country, but it has compelling disadvantages for
a sustained future.

260,000-acres of International Paper Co. in Adirondacks to
be Protected April 23, 2004In celebration of Earth Day, April 22, 2004,
Gov. George E. Pataki announced the biggest acquisition of land
in the Adirondacks yet - 260,000 acres of International Paper
Co. forest in 9 counties and 34 towns within the Adirondack Park,
nearly all of IPs Adirondack
holdings. In a deal involving the Conservation Fund, the State
will own 2,000 acres in fee simple and will acquire conservation
easements in 255,000 acres. Full story

Comments
on the DEC Draft Comprehensive Adirondack Snowmobile Plan
- By Peter J. LaGrasse, Captain, Stony Creek Emergency Squad,
February 9, 2004.All trails should be built for pickup truck access so that
snowmobile access would double as fire and emergency access.
Snowmobile access can also be pickup truck access for the disabled
and senior citizens.

Another
Inrtrusive Tool for the APA - By Nate Dickinson (Property
Rights Foundation of America, October 17, 2003)In addition to legislation in the U.S. Senate, recent years
have brought bureaucratic involvement with invasive species by
the Adirondack Park Agency, which has begun implementing the
non-regulatory Adirondack Park Roadside Invasives
Control Initiative.

Memories are
short - By Carol W. LaGrasse, Letter to the Editor
published in Press-Republican, August 22, 2003.Adirondack leaders must have forgotten the 21st
Century Commissions recommendation for 2,000-acre
per house zoning and 654,000 acres of land acquisition, to be
supporting Governor Patakis nomination of Ross Whaley,
a member of the commission, to chair the APA.

APA
violation sparks debate - By John Gereau, Adirondack
Journal, March 22, 2003 (reprinted by permission of the Adirondack
Journal)Ed and Mary Lou Monda bought their home in 1998 without knowing
that its 30-year-old deck overlooking Lake George did not conform
to APA regulations. They now face enforcement requirements because,
unlike laws related to rape, robbery and arson, there is no statute
of limitation for violations of the APA Act.

An
Attempted Perspective - Good Faith Fails to Bridge the Adirondack
Gap - By Carol W. LaGrasse (Property Rights Foundation
of America, Dec. 3, 2002)A review of the issues, accuracy and fairness in Barbara McMartins
new book, Perspectives on the Adirondacks - A Thirty-year
Struggle by People Protecting Their Treasure (Syracuse University
Press, 2002). In her book packed with information of varying
accuracy about the opposing sides in the Adirondack struggle,
McMartin sympathetically seeks harmony through utopian planning
while increasing the protection of nature. But she fails to understand
the human needs for private property rights and equal protection
under the law.

Adirondack OrganizationsThis directory of Adirondack organizations and government
agencies contains material selected to be helpful in knowing
the current, and perhaps future, areas of action of organizations
with interests related to land issues in the Adirondacks and
their true positions.

Statement
- Wilcox Lake Wild Forest - By Peter J. LaGrasse, Captain,
Stony Creek Emergency Squad, & Chairman, Stony Creek Board
of Assessors, DEC Meeting, Thurman Town Hall, March 8, 2002Harrisburg Road should be cleared through beyond Moosewood
Club and Bakers Clearing to Wells, other roads cleared,
and a network of roads created for pickup trucks, which are what
people drive to go fishing, ATVs for recreation, emergency use
vehicles, and ambulances.

Statement
- Wilcox Lake Wild Forest - By Carol W. LaGrasse, President,
Property of America, DEC Meeting, Thurman Town Hall, March 8,
2002Swaths of open area should be cut as fire breaks. Ancient
highways should be opened and trails widened for fire protection
vehicles. Waite Road and other old roads should be opened to
access State land. The State should reverse its anti-ATV policy.
Cemetery access should be respected. The States
environmental review should include the cultural and economic
impacts, not just biological aspects.

UnterhausAdirondack
Housing-By Carol W. LaGrasse (Property Rights Foundation
of America, Jan. 2002)A permanent solution to the problem
of visibility of houses, which is suffering renewed concerns
expressed by Richard Beamish and his news tabloid, Adirondack
Explorer, in attacks on Frank Casiers development
by on Mt. Pisgah

The Controversy about a Log
House on Lens Lake
-September 2001 See articles on following list.
The orchestrated campaign to block the construction of a single-family
log house a distance of 300 feet from Lens Lake in Stony Creek,
N.Y.
Claiming that a supposedly untouched lake will be spoiled forever,
a band of nearby summer home owners have banded together with
the well-connected owner of the neighboring property to block
construction of the house. The Adirondack park Agency has called
public hearing before an administrative law judge for this tiny
project and a full adjudicatory hearing is being planned. The
powerful Adirondack Council and Residents Committee to Protect
the Adirondacks have applied to become official parties and present
witnesses and evidence against the location of the house, and
the venerable Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks
has also expressed opposition.Articles about Lens Lake Log House:

Untouched
Lake Shore - By Carol W. LaGrasse, reprinted from
the New York Property Rights Clearinghouse, Vol. 5,
No. 2 (Fall 2001)The Adirondack Park Agencys Reply to a Freedom
of Information Request Chronicles the Coordinated Opposition
to a Single Log House

A Discussion of Historical Documents depicting the occupancy
and extensive agricultural use of the Lens Lake Road area of
Stony Creek, N.Y.  Pre-Filed
Testimony of Carol W. LaGrasse (June 5,
2002, APA Project No. 2002-158 - Proposed Single Family Dwelling
on Lens Lake)This document gives a touching view into the hard-working,
productive past of the farm families who make up the bulk of
the population of Stony Creek including the Lens lake area, by
citing 19th century New York State Agricultural Census
records, official assessment records, and maps to prove the extensive
agricultural use of the area of Lens Lake Road, Stony Creek by
intensive farming and the extent of subsequent flooding of much
of the land with an artificial dam that remains (reconstructed)
to
this day.

Analysis of Letters Received from APA with their September
7, 2001 Reply to LaGrasse FOIL Request, including Exhibit 9 
By Carol W. LaGrasse (June 28, 2002, APA Project No. 2002-158
-
Proposed Single Family Dwelling on Lens Lake)
This document, in several parts, includes a discussion of the
analysis of the 98 comment letters received in the Freedom of
Information Request reply from the APA, a full list and short
description of the letters, tables analyzing the letters and
grouping them by hand-written and three types of pre-typed form
letters, and a summary chart showing that only 16 individuals
wrote the personally written letters, and that there were 64
pre-typed form letters.a.
Summary Statementb.
Analysis - List and Tables of lettersc.
Summary Analysis

Reward
offered for arsonists- by Virginia Germer, News Correspondent,
Hamilton County News, Sept. 18, 2001 (Reprinted
by permission)The Adirondack League Club is advertising a $5,000
reward to anyone who provides information resulting in the arrest
and conviction of the person(s) who burned two of the clubs
camps to the ground. The river that flows through the clubs
53,000-acre property had been closed to public use until Sierra
Club canoeists trespassed to assert the right of passage in 1991.
After a nine-year court battle, the ALC and the Sierra Club reached
a settlement that allowed canoeing. There is no way at this time
to know whether this arson is ecoterrorism, but the article quotes
the ALCs attorney that a decision for the Sierra
Club would open every private river to every canoeist
and white water terrorist that exists.

DEC settles
in access for disabled lawsuit-Reprinted by permission
from the Hamilton County News, July 10, 2001The State of New York has caved in to three years of civil
rights litigation brought by disabled local residents in federal
court. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will
give the disabled real access to the State Forest Preserve lands
in the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains-including access to
motor vehicle roads exclusively used by the State and the expenditure
of nearly $4.8 million to make parking areas, restrooms, fishing
access sites, boat launches, campsites, picnic areas, equestrian
mounting platforms and offices accessible to the disabled.

Update on Adirondack
Litigation-Speech by Carol W. LaGrasse to
the Adirondack Park Agency Local Government Review Board, Baxter
Mountain Lodge, Keene, N.Y. (May 30, 2001)This speech describes the lawsuit challenging the State acquisition
of the Champion International tracts and the lawsuit that Carol
LaGrasse brought challenging new regulations promulgated by the
APA. The speech also points out the likely reason why the Conservation
Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Adirondack Park
Agency and the National Parks and Conservation Association are
behind the new Adirondack Community Information Centers and the
Twinning projectwolf reintroduction.

Frontenac Link: Environmentalists Envision a Land
Bridge called the Frontenac Axis from Algonquin
Provincial Park in Quebec to the Adirondack Park. They want to
create a swath of undeveloped land for a right of way for migrating
wolves to enter the Adirondacks from Quebec and for all wildlife
to have a natural corridor to migrate freely without
interference by people.

Looking west from Long Lake to Lake Eaton
Photo by Nate Dickinson

The 1995 Adirondack BlowdownThe tangle of dead forest left behind by the devastating
July 15, 1995 blowdown remains in place because of the pressure
of the Adirondack Council on Governor Pataki to protect
the wild forest. At that time the State Department of Environmental
Conservations study pronounced the maximum level
fire hazard possible existed. The current status of thus hazard
has not been revisited. Today, the trunks caught high and dry
are surrounded with a dense growth of evergreens, which are fine
kindling. With seven million acres of western forests destroyed
by fire during 2000, it should be apparent that, even in an area
not prone to drought, a wildfire hazard in New York in areas
mixed with private property, towns, and villages should be a
prime concern of public policy makers. Below are reprinted some
of PRFAs materials pointing out the ironies of the
States inaction during 1995-96.

The Glossary
of Environmental Repression -
by Carol W. LaGrasse, 1992This glossary of terms used in New Yorks Adirondacks
includes established terms as well as pseudoenvironmental jargon.
An understanding of the drift of these terms reveals the repressive
goals of environmental preservationists.

Land
acquisition push gains steam - by Carol LaGrasse, reprinted
from Hamilton County News, Feb. 18, 1992An array of programs created by environmental preservationists
are aligning to effectively promote government acquisition of
Adirondack land. (This February 1992 article, posted in May 2009,
sheds light on two decades  so far  of
land acquisition policy.)

Adirondack Park
Open Space Protection Plan Map - April 1990 - State
of New York Commission on the Adirondacks in the Twenty-first
Century, Mario M. Cuomo, Governor; Peter A. A. Berle,
Chairman; George D. Davis, Executive Director.This map accompanied the report of the Commission on the Adirondacks
in the Twenty-first Century, and was largely responsible for
the uproar that resulted in the defeat in the legislature of
the bills incorporating the Commissions 245 recommendations
for extreme restrictions on private land in the Adirondacks.

Click map for larger version and more information

Back to:

&COPY; 2016 Property Rights Foundation of America,
Inc.
All rights reserved. This material may not be broadcast, published,
rewritten or redistributed without written permission.